


Transformation Through Blood

by whatsanapocalae



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Blind Character, Body Horror, Eye Trauma, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Trauma, Men Crying, Suicidal Thoughts, Torture, Trans Male Character, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-13 22:09:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16900728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsanapocalae/pseuds/whatsanapocalae
Summary: Theodore has plans for Stefano. If he can't use him to gain the core, he'll use him in another way. Sebastian finds him in the process of his "reprogramming" and can't stop himself from helping out.





	1. Chapter 1

“No! No, please, I’m begging you, please, just, no. No! No!” 

Sebastian woke on the floor, feeling the cobblestones beneath him hard and warm. Everything felt like it was broken but he pulled himself to his feet, shaking his head. There was a long scream coming from somewhere, a scream that sounded like nothing more than pure agony. He didn’t know where he was, but he could smell sulfur and he was surrounded by corpses and fire and that screaming was such a terrible sound, echoing around the chamber, he knew that he was going to it first. 

No where had he heard screaming like that, especially not this drawn out. 

“Please,” He heard the voice, deep slurring, beg, “Please, no more. You have me, don’t you? Is that not eno-AAAAAAAUGH!” 

He pulled himself to his feet. This place looked like a medieval dungeon. The burned corpses around him didn’t help matters either. 

For a moment the screams sounded more like moans, rhythmic and appalling, and Sebastian dragged himself and his screaming muscles into a corridor, looking for a place in which the sound was louder. The moans were still those of pain though and they were loud and cut off by terrible sobs, whoever making them unable to do anything, unable to fight back. 

He checked his gear. He still had a lot of ammunition, but he was all out of syringes. Even if he found this person, he didn’t have much that he could do to help them. A quick death was one option, but he didn’t know where he was and he needed both allies and answers in this place. 

There was so much fire. Every time he looked around a corner there was more of it. He focused on the screaming instead, a loud screech that broke through the normal rhythm, to keep himself from leaving. He couldn’t afford that, to be drawn into his own thoughts, for the fire in his head to mingle with the fire around him. There was someone hurting and he had to get to them before he could worry about Lily. 

“No! No, not that! Anything but that! Please!” The voice was so close now but he couldn’t see the person it belonged to. Instead he could only see a corridor with a few of those new enemies, the large ones that would burst into flames when he tried to get close to them. He’d have to fight his way through. “Please! I’ve given you everything else!” 

Another scream, this one worse than the rest. He couldn’t imagine what they were drawing from their victim, but someone was taking something that should never have been touched. He moved through the room, shotgun at the ready, trying to stab as many of the once human things that he could before they noticed him. He got pretty far before he had to shoot the rest of them. 

And then, when it was over, he noticed that there was no more screaming. He perked his ears, tried to focus, tried to hear something, anything, but whoever was in so much pain was silent now. He had to assume that it was because of whoever else who was in there, whoever was hurting him, could hear Sebastian’s progress. 

There were three doors though and Sebastian didn’t want to hear those screams but, at the same time, he needed to hear something. He had to know where he was going. He needed to know where the victim was. 

He was about to push open the first of the doors, to find more enemies or the wrong direction or something else that would waste his time, when he finally hurt another sound, a long whine, coming from one of the others. He turned and went to it, throwing it open. 

There was something large, far too large, in the room, its face wrapped in flesh or bandages, he wasn’t sure, and it was long and pointed. It was dressed like a priest but it’s stole had been terribly burned, much like the rest of its vestments. It was standing in front of a man who was covered in blood and sizzling somewhat, nude and panting in a chair. 

The priest thing turned on him shouting something, and Sebastian noted the chandelier of candles above its head. He didn’t have time, he didn’t know how much work it would be to fight this thing, but with a shotgun he didn’t want to accidentally hit its victim. He shot high and the chandelier fell, and the flames engulfed the priest thing. 

It screamed, the pain nowhere near as bad as what its victim had been through, and clawed at itself as the flamed spread through its robes. It lowered its head, still burning, and rushed Sebastian, who only had a moment to dash to the side, to avoid its frenzied dash. It kept going though, ignoring him, leaving the room it had come from in complete darkness. 

Sebastian went for his flashlight. Normally he would have followed the monster and taken it down, tried to figure out what else he was going to have to deal with, but he could hear the victim crying from within the room and he had to take care of him first. He flipped the light on and made his way inside. 

The figure in the chair was panting, his chest heaving, and there was hardly a spot on him that wasn’t stained red. His wrists were bound with metal straps to the chair and there was more blood dribbling from them. His chest and shoulders were covered in red and blistering burns, wherever the skin hadn’t evaporated, and the burns were in the shape of that symbol, the cross with an eye in it that had been all over Beacon. His ankles were also bleeding and bound to the legs of the chair, which were just a bit too wide for him to sit comfortably, for him to sit in any way that didn’t expose all of his sexual organs. Sebastian didn’t want to think of why. He didn’t want to think about that rhythmic screaming he’d heard either. 

The worst was his face. There were terrible gashes across it and something looked like it had been puled up from under the skin. It looked like when he’d tried weeding with Myra, a lifetime ago, and they’d had to pull the roots up through the soil, breaking and upturning everything in the dandelion’s path. It all seemed to surround his eye socket, which was empty and bubbling with blood. That thing hadn’t been careful about removing the eye and seemed content with removing all of the skin around it too. 

Sebastian swore and fell to his knees in front of the man, working on the cuffs around his ankles. They weren’t locked, they didn’t need to be, and they were just kept in place with a single pin. 

“W-who’s there?” the man asked, his voice rough and crackling, ruined from screaming. “Is someone there?”

Sebastian nodded, even though he realized that the man couldn’t see him. He flashed the light up, checked his remaining eye, and stopped what he was doing. 

He knew who this was. 

The eye that remained was just a blue lens, a camera lens, under the torn and lifted scar tissue. It was unseeing, for the moment, at least, but that didn’t make it any less threatening. 

“Hello?” Stefano asked, and the lens was shifting, like it was an eye, but he was still not seeing. He sounded terrified, he was terrified, and hurting, and so many other things. Sebastian had to do something. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” he said, trying to keep his voice quiet, calm, not completely disgusted by all of the damage done to Stefano’s body. “I’m going to help you.”

Stefano laughed at that, quiet and unamused. “I’m afraid you’re too late for that, unless you have come to deliver some mercy.”

Sebastian pulled the cuff open and Stefano screamed, the interior of the cuff filled with sharp metal spikes which had been shoved deep into Stefano’s skin. Sebastian swore again, watching as the blood started to flow thick and heavy. He hadn’t expected that. 

He reached up, ran his hand along Stefano’s jaw, shushing him as he hissed and tried to control his breathing, as he tried to get through the new wave of pain. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know that was going to happen!” Sebastian promised. 

Slowly, Stefano gained control of himself, some semblance of composure coming over him. 

“I suppose,” he said, the moment that he could, “that I am a masterpiece of sorts. I had hoped that there would be more beauty in my death than this.”

“You’re not dying,” Sebastian rolled his eyes. He pulled the pin out of the cuff on his other ankle. He didn’t dare open it though, not yet. He searched the table beside them, which held scalpels and a long branding iron. There were no heat sources in this room though, so Sebastian didn’t know what had kept it hot. He had to assume it was just this place. 

“Is this not death? I have no purpose now. I am nothing more than a broken lump of flesh. I cannot create like this, I cannot make art. I have… I have no reason to live like this.”

Stefanos’ suit lay in tatters on the floor, even his belt torn through with monstrous strength. Sebastian picked it up and held it to Stefano’s mouth. He wasn’t going to argue with Stefano’s desire to create art, even though he didn’t think it was art at all. He wasn’t going to fight him on that at all. At the moment, he just had to get him out of there, alive. 

“I’m going to get your other ankle free, then your wrists. It’s going to hurt,” he explained, holding the expensive Italian leather up to Stefano’s mouth. “I’m going to need you to bite down on this.”

“It would save you time to just slit my throat,” Stefano heaved. He did open his mouth though and let Sebastian slide the leather in between his teeth, then bit down into it. 

It would save him time. It would save him a lot of grief as well. Stefano had been far more than a thorn in his side and he’d wanted nothing more than to kill him so recently. Seeing him like this though, he couldn’t think of anyone deserving such torture. That’s what this was too. He didn’t blame Stefano for wanting nothing more than death. He understood it. He’d heard it before, when the torture wasn’t so physical. 

“Alright, one, two, thr-” Sebastian counted it out but he could hardly hear the three through Stefano’s scream, even through the leather. Another ankle free and pouring down blood. He had to wrap them. He hadn’t even thought of that. If he was going to set his wrists free there was going to be a terrible chance that he’d bleed out and die, but that chance was in his ankles as well. 

Another sweep revealed nothing in terms of medical equipment and Sebastian was left to wonder what the point of torturing Stefano was. They must have healed him up first too, because Sebastian had left him to die in the Theatre last he’d seen him. 

He took up Stefano’s shirt and tore it into strips. He could hear Stefano whine, try to understand what he was hearing. 

“Don’t worry. I’m just going to wrap the wounds in your ankles,” Sebastian explained, drawing near once more. This close to Stefano he could finally smell something other than sulfur but that didn’t mean the smell was any better. It was, instead, the smell of blood and burnt flesh. He was careful as he wrapped the wounds, though he tightened them as best he could to slow the bleeding. The muscles in Stefano’s legs were taut all the while. 

He stood up and stroked the skin above Stefano’s left wrist, letting him know where he was. He could feel the artist relax a bit at the touch, one that wasn’t on someplace that hurt. “This one’s next, alright?”

Stefano nodded around his gag. Sebastian pulled the pin and then, on the count of three, pulled it open. Another scream and the belt fell from Stefano’s mouth in two pieces, bit all of the way through. 

“I’m going to tear you apart!” Stefano growled through the pain, even as Sebastian wrapped the wound and tried to soothe the pain through gentle touches to undamaged skin. Stefano’s head was lolling, his body slumped to one side. He was losing it, both to the pain and to the blood loss. 

“It’s okay! You’re okay. We’re almost done,” Sebastian promised. “Just one more...”

“A break?” Stefano was crying, or he was making the sounds of crying anyway. Sebastian didn’t know if it was possible for him to cry anymore. “Please, please.”

Sebastian wanted to snap at him, about all of the people he had killed, about the woman who he had cut the tongue out of to make his Obscura, about all of the others who he had carved into and cut apart, tortured for his art. How many of them had asked for mercy? How many of them had asked him for death? How many of them would have settled for something as simple as a break?

Sebastian gave him one, standing up and looking around the room. There were three other chairs like the one that Stefano was in, though only one of them was filled with a burned out corpse. He didn’t know what was going on, what the idea was behind this torture, but he didn’t think Stefano was in any position to answer him about it. He was hoping for some herbs or a syringe or something else that he could use to help Stefano heal. There were a few bullets, which he knew Stefano would have preferred, but nothing that would actually help him at the moment. 

“Alright, you ready?” Sebastian asked, coming close once more.

Stefano’s head drooped and he nodded. He didn’t seem to be there anymore. He was too out of it, from the pain and blood loss. Sebastian was surprised he was conscious at all. He was going to have to wrap Stefano’s head too, put something into the socket to soak up the blood. 

He placed the leather, less of it now, in Stefano’s mouth and counted to three. He could see Stefano tense in expectation for the cuff to open. He wanted to be proud of this, he wanted to be glad that Stefano was hurting. He wanted to think that he deserved it. He couldn’t. He couldn’t think that. Even with everything that Stefano had done, even though he had done this to other people, Sebastian couldn’t wish this upon him. 

He tore the cuff off of Stefano’s wrist and bound it in the dark, the light pointing off in a random direction. Another scream another moment of agony, and Stefano was free. After that was just his face and as Sebastian wrapped the bandages around Stefano’s head he realized what the deep gauges in his face were. The dark veins that had popped up when they fought, the writhing scar tissue that revealed his anger, they had all been torn out. It went all the way down to his chest on the right side. 

Sebastian put an arm around his back, feeling him tense up, and cursed himself for not telling him what he was doing. 

“We need to go,” he whispered into Stefano’s ear, “Those things are going to be back at some point.”

“I don’t believe that I’m capable of walking, I fear,” Stefano admitted, “I was never the quickest on my feet even before this.”

“Shit, well, do you know how to get out of here?” 

“You sound familiar. Do I know you?”

Sebastian went quiet. He didn’t want to give himself away. If he did, Stefano had far more reason to attack him than not. He thought that he could get away with talking normally, talking kindly and calmly instead of shouting at him. It had only worked for a short while, it seemed. 

“We met a couple times, yeah. It doesn’t matter. What matters is getting out of this place.”

He felt Stefano nod against him. 

“I’m going to have to pick you up. Can you get your around my neck?”

“I don’t suppose you’ve noticed this, but I can’t even see your neck.”

Sebastian sighed and took his hand in his free one, leading it around his shoulders. If Stefano knew who he was, if he knew anything about what was happening around him, he supposed that that arm would tighten quickly around his throat. He just had to hope that Stefano was too weak to attack him and too needy to distrust him. 

“Alright, are you ready?” Sebastian asked once he was in place. 

“I highly doubt it matters but, yes, I’m as ready as I possibly could be.” 

Sebastian kept one hand on his back and slid the other under his thighs. He could feel moisture there, between his skin and the chair. He didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to know. He could feel Stefano’s anxiety though, could feel him tense up. This was going to be difficult. He lifted and Stefano gasped, his fingers digging into Sebastian’s shirt, one of them wrapping around his holster. 

“It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’m not going to drop you.”

Stefano didn’t respond. 

Sebastian was wondering if he had finally passed out, but he was stirring by the time Sebastian got them to the door and had kicked it open. He was breathing in rapid, pained gasps, clutching at Sebastian, still bleeding too much. They had to get to some medical supplies, fast. 

“I need to know where to go. Can you tell me where to go?” 

Stefano shook his head, “I don’t even know where we are.”

Sebastian looked around, trying to come up with some way to describe their surroundings. They were terrible, for one, but there was nothing that had a name or a specific landmark. “We’re in a dungeon of some kind.”

“Yes, you neanderthal, I know that!” Stefano snapped, though his voice was small and weak. 

“Well, I don’t have any other landmarks, sorry.”

“You need to go up, further into the building. There’s only two entrances that I know of, one that leads through the front, though I suppose we’d both die if we went that way, and one that goes through the sewers. That one’s trickier, you have to go directly to him in order to get access.”

“Him?” It was brighter out here, Sebastian could see the damage more terribly. He didn’t exactly want to see it but he could. Everything that was bleeding was still bleeding, though it had slowed considerably. He was still looking around wildly with his one eye but he was definitely blind. Any usefulness he may have held was nullified like this, at least as a guide. 

“He is my patron, for lack of a better word, my employer perhaps? He is the one who gave me full reign over my art, who gave me the tools that I needed, who gave me such wonderful abilities to make my visions a reality. And he only asked for one thing in payment, something that I failed to procure.”

“The Core...” Sebastian realized. 

Stefano nodded against him. “He not only has rewards that you could only dream of but far more power over this place than the rest of us could hope to achieve. He is a, magnificent benefactor but also a terrible enemy.”

“So we go out the front.”

“If you wish to burn to death, yes, an excellent choice.”

“You said we could go out that way.”

“I said there were two entrances. That is all.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. Stefano was impossible, even when he was so weak. “Is there anywhere we can get you medical care?”

“Not that I know of,” Stefano admitted, “It would be in your best interest to dispose of me.”

It would be easy too and deserved. Sebastian couldn’t deny that he was tempted. “Do you want me to kill you?”

“Yes,” Stefano sighed and relaxed against him. “But no, no I don’t suppose I want to die. I am hurt now, I am blind, I am worthless, nothing more than a burden. Yet, a part of me doesn’t want to die. A part of me wants to try to create, though that is overshadowed by the pain. I want that to end. Perhaps, if I could die in a way that is art, that is beauty, that would be the ideal.”

It was too much. Sebastian though he would be sick if Stefano made another reference to his art. They had to move. Sebastian went through this room to the next, back tracking through those that he’d disposed of, looking for a way up. He’d only been looking for the owner of the voice before. Now he had him. 

Towards the start there was a gate with a large wheel that had a stairwell behind it, which was narrow and only went a few steps before turning at a right angle. It was wide enough though for both of them. There were also, however, a line of cells, in which Sebastian could see prisoners, all of which were the people who had been chasing him through the city proper. He’d figure out by now that opening the gate would also open all of the cells, and he couldn’t handle all of them while protecting Stefano. 

He didn’t even know why he wanted to protect him. 

“I have to set you down,” he explained, laying Stefano against a corner, letting him lean against one of the walls. Only then did he notice that Stefano was shivering, even though it was so hot in there, the fires that were set everywhere making the place swelter. Sebastian took off his holster and then his henley, comfortable enough in just his over shirt. He still put his holster on before kneeling down next to Stefano. 

“Raise your arms for me?” he asked. 

“What’s the point?” Stefano obeyed anyway, though he couldn’t get his arms straight up. They were too heavy for that. 

“I’m giving you my shirt. It should help you stay warm,” Sebastian put his arms through the sleeves and pulled it down his arms gently, letting his hands fall into his lap once the shirt was on enough. He hissed as the material went down his front, too close to the fresh burns, but he didn’t fight more than that. “Now there’s going to be a lot of noise. A lot of monsters are going to come in here and I’m going to try to blow them up before they get to us, okay?”

“Monsters?” Stefano asked, looking up at him. He looked quizzical, of all things, which was difficult to pull of in his condition. “They look like monsters to you?”

Sebastian froze where he stood. Yes, they looked like monsters to him, they were monsters. But then he thought of Stefano’s art, how none of those people had been monsters, how they had been flesh and blood, other than those that were still alive. This was all happening in someone’s mind, in Lily’s mind, there was no way for him to know that what he was seeing was what other people were seeing. Was it possible that he had been killing people? That theses were just common folk and his mind couldn’t imagine that? 

“Relax,” Stefano smiled and it was the first smile since Sebastian had found him, even though it didn’t reach his eyes, it couldn’t reach his eyes. “I was joking. They’re definitely monsters.”

Sebastian smiled then too. He didn’t know Stefano was capable of joking. “Okay, I’m going to start getting ready. I’m not going to let any of them get close to you, alright?”

“As you wish,” Stefano shrugged and then winced. 

At that Sebastian started to place his traps and get ready for them. There was another of those candle filled chandeliers above them, he could drop that if he had to. He set up all of his explosive bolts before he went to the wheel. He took one last glance at Stefano as he turned it. He was either asleep or just sitting very very still. All of the blood on him made him appear even paler than he usually was, than the blood loss had made him. He was a mess. Sebastian just hoped that he was wrong about the lack of medical supplies.


	2. Chapter 2

The explosive bolts burst in an array of nails, blood, and stone, taking out part of the floor as it took out the legs of the monsters. Some of them died right then but others dragged themselves further on bleeding stumps, ignoring their missing fingers or arms, whatever had been caught in the blast. Sebastian stood firm, waiting for them, shotgun at the ready. 

He let them get close enough that he couldn’t miss before firing. They were easy, terribly easy, more so than he was expecting. It could have been that they were already weakened by the blasts, but he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t trust it. He took out as many as he could, lining up his shots so that he could take out two at a time when possible. 

He wished he had some matches, could just burn them when they fell, to conserve ammo. As it was he was already going through it. They may not have posed much of a threat but there were a lot of them, and they seemed to keep coming. 

“Shit!” he swore under his breath, switching to one of his pistols. He still had some shells left but he wanted to save them, just in case they started to get too close to Stefano. He didn’t know why he was being so protective of him, Stefano was as bad as the rest of them, if not worse. He had kidnapped Lily, had terrified her for his own sick inspiration, and Sebastian doubted he would be of any help now. But Sebastian also knew that he couldn’t just leave him, couldn’t allow him to be tortured like he had been, couldn’t stand by while he was in pain. He had spent his life helping others, he couldn’t turn that off now. 

One of the monsters came barreling towards him, shoulder down. It was different from the others, larger, and its skin seemed to be made of stone. When Sebastian shot it some of the stone like pieces broke off in a splatter of white hot blood, or something like it. The whole thing looked like it was filled with fire. 

Sebastian grit his teeth and aimed for the head. The first one pierced but didn’t bring it down but the body caught on fire and the monster roared. Sebastian grit his teeth and tried again, aimed for the same spot. This time the head burst in bright white heat and it went down. 

There weren’t that many now, Sebastian could count how many were left at a quick glance. This was almost over. It needed to be over. Stefano needed medical care, fast, and Sebastian didn’t know if there was any in this building. Whoever ran it was far more interested in dealing damage than repairing it. It made Sebastian feel cold, right behind the ears, as his fingers twitched. He always smoked when he was nervous. 

The feelings, the thoughts, were quickly pushed aside as something slammed into him from the side and he fell, only to be pinned by another of those things. It was straddling him, a hand on each of his arms, keeping him underneath it. He struggled against it, finding himself much weaker than the monster, kicking with his legs in an attempt to get it off. It responded by catching on fire. 

“Son of a bitch!” Sebastian screamed as its hold burned him, stone skin against his own, much more delicate, skin. The fire went through his jeans too, burning at his hips and he tried to harder, kicked more, but couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but hurt himself further. 

His eyes went to Stefano, who was no longer sitting as he had been, unmoving, but had pulled himself further into the corner, had curled up into a ball, and covered his face in his hands. He had promised Stefano that he would protect him. He couldn’t protect him if he was dead. He didn’t even know if he could call out to him, tell him to run. 

The weight against him was gone and he sighed, even as the burns kept up, as his skin blistered and broke open. The monster was getting up, was leaving him alone. He was able to fight back, he was able to do something. 

The monster wasn’t getting up for his needs though. It was turning, stalking forward. It had seen what Sebastian had seen. It was going for Stefano. 

Stefano wasn’t fighting it, Stefano wasn’t a threat to it, Stefano wasn’t doing anything. He was still curled up so tight, shaking, making these terrible sounds like he was choking and crying and chanting something, but he wasn’t a target. He shouldn’t have been. The monster was going for him though, completely forgetting about Sebastian in the process. 

Shotgun. He still had some shells. But if he blew its head off all of that heat would spray out and land of Stefano and he would get burned as well. It wouldn’t be too bad but he was already in such bad shape and it would probably rile him up further. 

Sebastian pulled out his knife instead, squatted down, and sneaked up behind it. It shouldn’t have worked, the monster should have caught on immediately, but all of its attention was on Stefano. Sebastian was able to get close to it easily and sink his knife into its skull, pulling it out with a wet plop before dropping the body. 

The other few monsters were closer now but they were easily taken care of with a few pistol rounds. Sebastian was able to take care of them without changing his position, without getting up from where he squatted next to Stefano. 

The moment he was done and the guns were holstered he was turning to Stefano once more, hands out, ready to touch him. 

“Stefano, you okay?” he asked, realizing that no, no Stefano was not. Every muscle in his body was taut, his toes splayed out, and he wasn’t covering his face with his hands, he was scratching at it. Mostly his right eye, digging at the strange lens that parodied what should have been there. He was frantically attacking it, as if he was trying to tear it out. 

“Stefano!” He tried again, this time putting his hands down, both of them on Stefano’s leg, just by the knee. 

The choking garbled sounds that were coming from Stefano stopped as he switched to screaming, tightening further in an attempt to get away from Sebastian. “Non toccarmi! Non osare!” 

Sebastian pulled his hands away, not knowing what Stefano said, not knowing what to do. “Woah, easy there, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Stefano threw out his left arm, either to push Sebastian away or wave him off. It wasn’t possible to tell which one since his aim was so terribly off. “Hurt me? No, of course you’re not! You’ve already done enough damage!” 

Sebastian could see it now, the blood of Stefano’s face, all around the lens, where he’d scraped some of the remaining scar tissue away. 

“You’re hurting yourself!” Sebastian argued, reaching out and grabbing Stefano’s wrist arm, just before the wound in his wrist. Stefano cried out, his voice taking in notes of terror on top of the panic and pain that Sebastian was hearing just before. He loosened his grip, he needed Stefano to trust him right then. “Look, I don’t know what happened, why it happened, but I’m trying to help. Would you let me do that?”

Stefano pulled himself into a better sitting position once more and socked Sebastian in the chest with his free hand, though the hit was without strength. Sebastian didn’t know how he’d stayed conscious for so long, but it seemed he was close to passing out. Sebastian didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. 

“I know who you are now,” Stefano admitted, the hand that was hitting him now clutching onto him, digging into his undershirt. “I know who you are.”

Shit. He must have recognized him while he was fighting those things, must have recognized the sounds of how he fought and how he swore. He let go of Stefano’s wrist and he immediately brought it back to his face. Sebastian was going to catch him again but he was just fixing his hair, hiding the damage he’d just caused himself. 

“What do you want from me?” he whispered. 

“Want from you?” Sebastian repeated, “Nothing, well, okay, I want my daughter back and I want to know where we are and I want to get the fuck out of here, but I think getting you off of death’s door is our main priority here.”

Stefanos’ eyebrows knotted up. “No! That’s not it. It can’t be it! You’re the man who hunted me all over Union, the man who destroyed my work, the man who attacked me and almost killed me! You’re the reason I was...” he stilled suddenly, his face falling lax. He couldn’t remember details, that was certain, he’d forgotten what all had happened in that room. Sebastian had only come across it once before, someone who had been hurt terrible and repeatedly, more than just abuse, and couldn’t remember large chunks of it. It was like the body hit a level of pain that blocked everything out. Stefano couldn’t remember what all was done to him and that made Sebastian wonder if he remembered you. “The reason they did this to me, the reason that he’s so disappointed in me. It’ all your fault.”

Sebastian knew that wasn’t true, that, as much as was his fault, this wasn’t. He hadn’t been the one to hurt Stefano, he hadn’t wanted Stefano hurt like this. He thought that Stefano was dead. What had happened to him, that was the fault of who had hurt him and no one else. Sebastian couldn’t take the blame for that. 

“My fault or not, I’m here now, and I’m going to get you taken care of. That’s my first priority,” Sebastian admitted. He knew arguing wouldn’t help them right now. And they had to move, quickly. Stefano was still bleeding, leaving long smears of it when he dragged himself along the ground. “I’m going to have to pick you up again.”

“No, don’t touch me!” Stefano sobbed, his shoulders caving in as the trembling grew worse. His hand was still in Sebastian’s shirt, he didn’t have much of a choice in his proximity to Stefano, as much as he seemed to think of it. 

He put his hand on Stefano’s back and Stefano almost bolted he flinched so strongly, but then he allowed Sebastian to pull him closer and he was able to rest his head against Sebastian’s chest, right next to where the fabric was gathered. Sebastian didn’t make another attempt to touch him, just held him there, the hand on his back still as can be. He could feel his shirt fill with blood and snot and tears but that didn’t matter. He couldn’t imagine himself not doing this. 

And then Stefano was speaking, ad it was quiet and buried, the words all jumbling together. “I could hear it and improvvisamente sono stato di nuovo li. I could feel it, the heat, the sand, il sangue nei miei occhi e il metallo e il dolore! I was there. I was there! I never wanted to be there again and I was there!”

He was switching languages, mid sentence and Sebastian thought it impressive but he didn’t know what any of it was. He didn’t know what Stefano had heard that had got him like this, that had made him feel sand.”

“You were here. You never left,” Sebastian tried to explain, his voice kind and calm. 

“I was here and I was there. It was in my head, just like the shrapnel they can’t get out.”

Shrapnel, right. Sebastian knew what he was talking about then, even without knowing the language. Kidman had sent him that article in his room. Sebastian didn’t know what had triggered the response, what had brought him back to the war that took his eye, but he was sure it had something to do with the fighting that had just taken place. It must have been so much worse, since he couldn’t see what what happening, had no visual stimuli to remind him where he really was. 

“Was it the explosions?” Sebastian asked, “Right at the beginning of that fight?” 

Stefano nodded against him. “It was just like that. So hot and dry and loud.”

“Okay,” Sebastian filed that away, it was something he could look out for in the future, something easy, “Okay, I’ll keep explosions to a minimum.”

Stefano pulled himself closer against Sebastian. “Why are you doing this? You could have gotten what you wanted from me so easily. You could have just kept going. I was open and vulnerable and you have decided to confuse me instead.”

“Confuse you?”

“You are being kind, which is not something I believed you capable of. And you are being kind to me, who does not deserve it. You could have taken what you wanted and be done with it.”

Sebastian agreed with parts of that, that Stefano didn’t actually deserve his kindness, but Sebastian was kind enough to those who needed it. If he could tell they could handle him being more abrasive he would be that way, if they were cowards who had done nothing but made things worse for themselves he would be more than abrasive. But if someone needed kindness, he would show it. He’d dealt with a lot of victims in his life and nothing helped as much as kindness. 

“What can I say? I’m a pretty kind person. You just kind of got on my bad side with the whole kidnapping my daughter.”

Stefano felt limp against him, either too weak to protest further or giving in. Sebastian ran his hand up Stefano’s back. 

“I’m going to pick you up now, okay? We need to keep going.”

Stefano nodded. He didn’t move much, but he allowed Sebastian to put his arm under his knees and lift him. His hand was still in Sebastian’s shirt and his face was still hidden from him. Sebastian didn’t press, didn’t pry. He knew how it was sometimes. He tried not to jostle Stefano too much while they moved. 

There were a loft of corridors but they all were stemming from the one that Sebastian was already on, the one that came through the gate. He glanced down the ones on either side but decided to keep heading straight. They needed to go up, meet with the man that was in charge of this place, or somehow avoid him, as they found the sewers. They were going to get out of here, one way or another. 

They were almost to the end of it when Sebastian saw it, just as he was glancing down the way. It didn’t fit with the rest of the aesthetic here, it didn’t fit at all. Down one of the side passages he could see an electric light. He changed directions. If there was something different, something that didn’t fit, there had to be a reason for it. 

The flooring was different too. The cobblestones were still there, as were the candles and the terrible feeling that they were in catacombs, but there were tiles as well, the same kind of tiles that were in the marrow, the same cement walls. It looked like everything had just been laid down on top of it, as if to hide it. It didn’t make any sense. 

And in the walls there were metal doors that looked like cells. There were a lot of them. They were different from the cells before, because those didn’t even have doors. These were for something other than monsters. 

But one of them had a monster in it, all the same. It hadn’t noticed them as it came through the door, bending over to get through the doorway. It was one of those priest things, the same as what Sebastian had lit on fire. He rushed forward, to another of the cell doors, and pushed against it, glad to find that it was unlocked. They couldn’t afford to be seen. 

Stefano was tight and breathing in rasping breaths as Sebastian closed the door behind them, gently nudging it closed with his foot. “What’s going on?” he whimpered. 

“One of those big guys,” Sebastian explained at a whisper, looking around the room. There was a bed which had the skeleton remains of someone who looked like they were still human strapped to it. There was a desk and a chair but nothing but a few blown out candles on it. There was nothing helpful. “We’re just going to hide out in here until its gone, alright?”

Stefano nodded. There was a slit in the door and Sebastian went up to it, keeping an eye out. He could hear the monster grumbling, something under its breath. He didn’t know what they were but they unnerved him. Soon enough though it was continuing down the hall. Sebastian waited a few breaths longer before trying the door again and getting them out into the hall. 

It was still down there, dragging something along behind it, something that looked like a thick red sword. It was facing away from them though and it was continuing on its way. 

Sebastian went the other way, down to that light. The light was one of those locks that he’d seen in the Marrow, where the frequencies had to be lined up. Here, there was hardly any sign that they weren’t in the marrow. It was strange, wrong, it almost felt like a trap. Sebastian didn’t care though, they had to get out of this place. It was just another exit for him. 

“I’m going to have to set you down again, okay?” Sebastian murmured. 

“Another fight?” Stefano’s voice was wobbly, hardly there at all now. 

“No, I just need both of my hands free.” He knelt down and set Stefano to the side. His skin was ashy now, his mouth open. He wasn’t doing well. They were going to have to go fast. 

He went to the controls and started to shift them, to try to match them up. The dials were sensitive though, the barest touch doing far too much. He swore and tried again, turning it back. 

“I found them father!” a voice came from down the hall and Sebastian turned, looking behind him. Stefano’s hand found his pant leg and clung to it. That monster with the sword looking thing had turned and spotted them and now was racing down the hell towards them. “I won’t let them get away!”

“Shit!” Sebastian growled and turned back to his work, going faster now. Just a little nudge, that’s all he needed. His adrenaline was spiking though, making his hands clumsy. He threw it too far and then had to dial it back, his heart racing in his ear. Stefano was tugging on his pant leg now too, as if Sebastian didn’t know about the danger they were both it. 

The monster stopped, he could hear its footsteps stop, and that was a problem, that meant that something was about to happen. He lined them up and threw open the door, grabbing Stefano without warning by the shoulder and dragging him in, throwing the door closed behind him, right as he started to feel the heat. 

He could see it, bright orange flames, licking through the cracks in the door. Sebastian didn’t know if the fire would burn down the door or if this counted as a safe room, but he knew that the lock wouldn’t reset and the monster would be on them in seconds. 

“Sorry about that,” Sebastian said, glancing down at Stefano, where he was panting and soaking, sweat having drench through him. He didn’t know if that was through exertion or overheating. It was all very warm in this place and the flames they’d just avoided hadn’t helped. He remembered how warm he always was when he’d donated blood. Stefano didn’t have much blood left at all. 

There was nothing in the room aside from a desk that had been hastily shoved into the corner and a computer, which had a green tree on it. Hope. 

“I think I found us a way out though!” Sebastian grinned, starting to work on it. Stefano’s head just lolled. They didn’t have much time. 

He didn’t have time to call O’Neil. He didn’t know what was going to meet them on the other side of the computer, when they made it into the Marrow. He didn’t care much either. They’d be out of this place and that had to be a start. Sebastian activated the computer, activated the loading of the new assets, and watched as the world went dark, as the room they were in went away and was replaced with something else. 

It was happening slower though, as if there was some sort of buffer, something preventing the system to go as it usually did. He tossed a look to Stefano, finding him, not in the space between, but on the floor, which was still in that strange dungeony zone. 

“Shit!” Sebastian groaned, grabbing Stefano and hoisting him up over his shoulder, feeling the strange cold of the Marrow bleed off of him as he did so. He’d never done this with another person. It had to be possible though. The moment he put his hand back on the keyboard he could feel the cold darkness take him again and this time it was taking Stefano as well. 

He checked on Stefano and yes, this time he was coming through with him, the darkness was slowly swallowing them whole. 

When the light came back they were in the Marrow, but it wasn’t like any part that Sebastian had ever seen. The lights were flickering, one of the long flourescent tubes hanging from the ceiling. The computer wasn’t on a desk anymore because the desk had been burned and then smashed, so the computer was on the ground. Candles were piled up everywhere, on top of each other, but none of them had been lit. It was a terribly empty and abandoned feeling that permeated the room. 

“You okay?” Sebastian asked. 

Stefano’s answer came in the form of a slight tapping on his back and Sebastian couldn’t tell if it was purposeful or just the swinging of Stefano’s arms. He didn’t have time to check on him though. They had to go. 

He turned to the door and tried not to balk at the cross that stood prominently against it, the strange eye shape of it that only screamed Ruvik. He held Stefano steady over his shoulder and kicked the door open. 

He almost collapsed right there at the sight of it. The room was turned over and it was barricaded but there was no mistaking it, this was a safe room. There was a bench that had become part of the barricade, as was the coffee table, leaving the pot on its side in a corner of the room, fluids a congealed puddle underneath it. The workbench was still in working condition and Sebastian could hear music come from a side room, and he was able to relax. He was finally able to relax. 

There was no furniture to set Stefano down on so he sat him down against the wall, glancing around to see if there was anything readily available. Shoved into the barricade he could a green duffle bag, which he was sure would have supplies of some kind. 

“It’s okay, we’re safe,” Sebastian promised, seeing how Stefano’s chest slowly heaved, but he responded in no other way. “I’ll get you patched up. Everything’s going to be alright.”

He left him alone to search through the pile, pulling out tables and chairs to get closer, until it was possible for him to reach through and grab it. The zipper got stuck a few times and he almost cut it open to get what he needed. Almost, because another tug had it spilling open. 

There was a jar of gunpowder, some weapon parts, some green gel, and a single syringe, right at the bottom. It wasn’t enough, there was no way that it would be enough to get Stefano back on his feet, but ti was all that Sebastian had. He picked it up, ignoring the rest for the moment, and went back to Stefano. 

“Hey, I found something that’ll help you feel better,” he explained. Stefano didn’t move other than tighten his mouth into a straight line. “I’m going to roll up your sleeve and then I’m going to give you a shot, alright?” Nothing. Stefano didn’t budge when he started on the olive green cotton, rolling it up past the elbow. “It’s gonna feel like a big pinch and then you should be alright.”

Nothing still. Sebastian slid the syringe into Stefano’s elbow. There was no tension in him now. His eyebrows knotted for a moment and then he went lax against the wall, almost slipping down it.


	3. Chapter 3

Color came back to Stefano’s cheeks slowly, as if he was refilling with blood. He shifted, a bit stronger already, before laying back once more, dragging his knees up to cover himself. The syringe wasn’t enough, not with the amount or severity of the wounds that Stefano had taken, but it was helping. He was going to need more. 

“I’ll be right back,” Sebastian promised, resting his hand on Stefano’s knee for a moment before he got up to his feet. Stefano’s fingers twitched slightly, as if he was considering reaching out to Sebastian, but he stopped himself, either in understanding or exhaustion. 

The mirror was in what looked like a normal bathroom, aside from the sink having a portal to his private safe room instead of a graffitied up slab. He wondered if Tatiana could help him; she was a nurse after all. Other than cryptic advice she hadn’t been helpful so far, and he’d never seen her actually do anything medical. There was a first aid kit on the wall at least. He pulled it off and brought it back to the main room. 

He set the kit on the workbench before taking two of the chairs he’d pulled away from the barricade and set them aside, so they could work together sitting down in more comfort than the floor could provide. 

“Stefano?” he asked, reaching down to take him by the elbow, to help him to his feet. “How are you feeling?”

He shook his head, hiding it behind hair and his knees. It was hard to read him with how both of his eyes were now gone and his features were obscured by blood and wounds and bandages. 

“Where am I?” Stefano’s voice was shrill with panic and quiet with shame. 

Sebastian sighed, “I told you, we’re somewhere safe. I need to take care of your wounds.”

“And who are we?” Stefano asked, not shifting. “Why are you doing this?”

Stefano knew who he was, he’d figured it out before. But he was in shock and in pain and people who were tortured often couldn’t remember things. Even things that happened after. How many rape victims had he met who couldn’t remember the faces of their assailants? How many children had he heard not remember how many or which bones their parents had broken? He had to swallow his frustration. 

“My name is Sebastian. Sebastian Castellanos,” he introduced. “And I’m your friend, for the moment. I’m here to help.”

“Sebastian Castellanos?” He moved the name in his mouth and Sebastian couldn’t help but feel a thrill at how his name sounded with Stefano’s accent, wondered how much better it would sound at full strength. “I don’t know. I don’t know that name.”

He thought that would trigger Stefano’s memory, but apparently it hadn’t. He wasn’t fighting Sebastian though, not for the moment. 

“You think you can stand?” 

He shook his head. 

“Okay, then I’m going to have to pick you up again.”

“Alright,” he sounded defeated. He raised and arm and Sebastian was able to tuck under it, but the moment his hand went down beneath Stefano’s thighs he was clenching them tight, his knees back against his chest, and his other hand was against Sebastian’s chest, pushing him away. “No, signore, per favore! Per favore, sro buono. Non camobattero! Staro bene!”

Sebastian let his arm lay flat as Stefano panted, his face flush with exertion. He didn’t know Italian but it was close enough to Spanish for him to understand what he was saying. 

“Look, I know you’re scared and your hurting, but I can’t help you from here. I need to get you up into the light so I can see the damage.” 

Stefano’s mouth was tight and his shoulders were shaking again. He hadn’t expected Stefano to be such an emotional person, not after what Hoffman had said. He’d met quite a few people who were psychopathic while on the job and Stefano definitely fit the description, though the emotions that he did feel were strong and, right now, took him over. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sebastian promised, “Any time you need a break we’ll take a break. We’ll take this at your pace.”

Stefano nodded, slowly, but it took a while for him to speak. “Alright. Alright. Just, not there.”

He stretched his legs out a bit and Sebastian tapped the back of his knees. “Here okay?”

Stefano nodded again. Sebastian hooked his arm under them and lifted and, while Stefano gasped and clung to him, he didn’t fight him this time. Sebastian was able to get him into one of the chairs that he’d set up next to the workbench, next to a pile of candles that had practically made the bench worthless. 

He opened the first aid kit and Stefano’s shoulders rose up as he paled. “Don’t worry, it’s just medical stuff. I need to see what we’ve got to fix you up with.”

“Heh,” Stefano groaned, “as if I can be fixed.”

Sebastian took one of his hands in his own, ignoring how Stefano flinched. He massaged the digits slowly, gently. His skin looked too dark, slightly discolored. “This can be fixed, you’ll see. You’ll be feeling better in no time.” He knew that it was a lie, that Stefano would never see again and the trauma of what he’d just gone through would never leave him, but he would do what he could. 

He kept holding Stefano’s hand as he went back to searching, finding a bottle of tissue adhesive in among the bandages, antiseptic, and other oddities. “Well, looks like I don’t have to give you stitches as least.” 

Stefano didn’t answer. He didn’t have an answer to give. 

“I’m going to unwrap your wrist, okay?” Sebastian asked, “So I can see if it’s healed at all.” 

Stefano let him and, when it was unwrapped it was still bleeding somewhat, the cotton stiff from how much of it had absorbed. The bleeding had gone down extensively though. He told Stefano what he was doing while he did it, keeping him calm with his voice. He did jerk away a few times, especially when Sebastian wiped the wounds down with antiseptic, but he did nothing to dissuade progress. Sebastian went from one wrist to the other and then down to his ankles. He wasn’t sure about what to do about the eye wound, aside from clean it out and rebandage it, and there was no way he was going to do the first part of that. It would be far too painful. He wouldn’t put Stefano through that. 

There were the burns but they didn’t seem to bother Stefano too badly, he didn’t mind the touch of Sebastian’s shirt against them at least. That left only one more wound that Sebastian needed to check out. 

He swallowed hard. He didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to make Stefano more uncomfortable than he was, any more ashamed. 

“Can you tell me what happened, uh, to make you not want me to touch you, uh down there?” he wasn’t doing a very good job of bringing it up. 

Stefano pulled away and he’s thighs were already tightly pressed together but now he tightened them further. “It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“I do,” Sebastian corrected him, “I need to get you in walking condition, if not more.”

“Why is this- why am I so important?”

He knew about Lily. He knew how to get out of this place. He knew what to do about this Theodore person. Those were the reasons that Sebastian needed him, but not the reason that he was helping him. Those were the excuses that he made. 

“I need your help and I don’t want to see you hurting anymore. I know that may be hard for you to understand, but that’s all it is. So if there’s anything I can do to make you feel better I’m going to try and do it.”

Stefano bit his lip. He was shivering again too. He relaxed his muscles in waves, a little bit at a time, breathing through it, until he was able to spread his legs, to allow Sebastian to see. “Please don’t...” he started whispering, but the end of the sentence trailed off and he didn’t seem to want to say what he didn’t want Sebastian to do. 

The first thing that Sebastian saw was the blood and there was a lot of it, dried and sticking to Stefano’s thighs. There were smears of white there as well, and Sebastian covered his mouth, trying not to gag at the sight. He’d seen dead bodies, he’d seen burn victims, he’d seen corpses that it was hard to tell what they had been before, and he’d trudged through a pit of blood and entrails before. Those people had all been dead though, they were easy to file away and think of as objects. Stefano was alive though and his anus looked like a gauged wound, too open, too bloody, torn without care. 

He hadn’t noticed that Stefano didn’t have a penis yet and, at the moment, it was such a minor detail that it didn’t matter. What did matter was that he’d been ripped open and whatever had done this, whatever that priest thing was, had done it in such a way that it could kill him. 

“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t give you any painkillers yet,” Sebastian sighed, trying to make light of the situation, trying to think of some way to make this abhorrent act not effect him like it was. “Blood thinners, you know?”

Stefano didn’t say anything. He was shaking but, other than that, he was siting perfectly still, as if he was expecting Sebastian to hurt him, to continue where that thing had left off. 

“I’m going to have to clean you up, do something about the bleeding,” Sebastian explained. “I know you can’t see what I’m doing. Is there anything I can do to keep you here, to know that I’m not going to hurt you?”

“You can leave,” Stefano begged. “I said before, that I didn’t want to die, not yet? Not like this? I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Sebastian placed a hand of Stefano’s cheek and he flinched but didn’t pull away. His skin was tacky with all of the blood on it. 

“I’m not going to kill you, not unless you force me to. You’ve already come such a long way, we’ve taken care of so much of the damage already. You don’t want to lose that progress, do you?”

Stefano inhaled and shook his head. “Just. Be careful and if I tell you I need a break, listen and do it?”

“Of course,” Sebastian promised. 

“And, give me something to hold onto? I feel like I’m falling here, I don’t know which way is up.”

Sebastian nodded, though he knew Stefano couldn’t see him, and looked around, trying to think of something that Stefano could keep a grip on. There was nothing around that he didn’t need and Stefano couldn’t use as a weapon. As a last resource he put Stefano’s hand on his own shoulder. 

“What is that?” Stefano asked. 

“It’s me. Just, feel free to squeeze if you need to. If it hurts too much we’ll take a break, that can be a sign if you don’t feel comfortable speaking.”

“Thank you. Sebastian. Thank you for being so understanding.” Stefano sounded so lost, so distraught. This should have been the easy part, to be understanding, to be kind. Stefano had been treated poorly, for a long time, even though he pretended that pain was new to him. Sebastian had seen it so many times before. He didn’t think he deserved such kindness. 

“Don’t worry about it. You have enough to worry about as it is.”

He took the antiseptic and started with Stefano’s thighs, cleaning the fluids off of him so that he could see better. There were no lacerations to his skin at least, this area seemed to be untouched by the torture. He could feel Stefano try not to tighten his grip as Sebastian worked, as his hands slid up, as they got closer to the wound. 

He tossed the soiled wipe to the side and grabbed a new one. “You don’t alright?” 

Stefano nodded, though he was tense and pale and shaking. Sebastian kept a light pressure as he moved the toilette to his hole, keeping an eye on him all the while. Stefano gasped and hissed and clenched his legs together, his free hand white knuckling the arm wrest. The one of Sebastian’s shoulder was also tight, but not too tight and Sebastian did what he could, as fast as he could, before pulling away. 

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian said, leaning back so he could see the damage without so much blood in the way, feeling Stefano relax a bit. “I’m so sorry. You’re doing so well. Do you need a break?”

Stefano shook his head. “Just. Get it. Over with.”

Sebastian took position once more, looking at him, looking into him. The bleeding had slowed immensely, probably because of the syringe, and he would most likely survive as long as he didn’t get an infection. And knowing how the human body worked, Sebastian was sure that he was going to get an infection easily. 

Another wipe and this one he wrapped around his finger. He didn’t want to do this. He watched as Stefano took a shuddering breath. He wished that Stefano could see, that he knew that Sebastian was dreading this, that he was working so hard as to not hurt Stefano. 

“I’m going to have to clean you up a bit,” Sebastian started, trying not to make Stefano panic, “on the inside. If you get an infection it will kill you, very painfully. I’m just going to do a little bit and you’re going to be in control, okay?”

“No!” Stefano shook his head more vigorously than before. He was making that terrible hiccuping sound again. “Please, please, you don’t have to do that. A bullet would be easier! Please!” 

Sebastian cupped his cheek and Stefano was breaking apart, the fear more than apparent, it was taking control. This was going to hurt and they both knew it and Stefano was already so close to shattering. Sebastian wished that there was something else, anything else that he could do, aside from killing him. 

“I know! I know, this has got to be so hard for you, I can’t even imagine. I’m not going to kill you though, I’m going to do everything I can to make this right.”

“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything you want to know, just, please, don’t do this.”

He leaned forward not knowing why he was doing it, not realizing what he was doing until he was doing it, and pressed a light kiss to Stefano’s forehead. “I’m sorry. I have to do this. I have to make sure you’ll be alright.”

Stefano was clinging to his shoulder, his grip so tight that Sebastian could feel his fingernails. He’d promised to give Stefano a break but, these were nerves, not pain, and this was going to hurt so terribly. Stefano hadn’t asked for a break either. 

He pressed the tip of his finger against the ragged rim, feeling how tense Stefano was, feeling him jump and pull away as Sebastian got close. He opened his mouth, was about to speak, but then the radio on his hip crackled to life and Sebastian was pulling away, Stefano sighing. 

“And here we have the hunter of monsters lose himself to a monster.”

Sebastian grabbed the radio, pulling it to his face. He’d heard this voice before, in his own safe room. Stefano was shaking. “Who is this?”

“You can call me Father Theodore. I am the holder of the knowledge that you are so desperately searching for.” 

Stefano’s thighs went together, hiding the bleeding wound. He was rocking slightly, still clinging onto Sebastian’s shoulder.

“What did you do to him, you sick bastard?” Sebastian growled. 

“Stefano has become a thorn in my side, as he has yours. He has failed me, betrayed me, and all I have done in response, is try to find something to salvage.”

Sebastian didn’t understand this man, had no idea what his intentions were, but he knew that he hated him. What he had done to Stefano was cruel, more than monstrous, and he didn’t know how breaking him was meant to salvage something from him. 

“What do you want?” 

“What I want?” Theodore sounded so confident, so calculated. Underneath his insanity there was a great deal of intelligence. “I want a world in which people are loyal, where they have faith in their superiors, and stop in their meaningless strife. I want you to help me make that world. Is that such a terrible desire?”

It was. Sebastian could tell that Theodore didn’t want loyalty, he wanted dominance. He didn’t want people to have faith, he wanted them to mindlessly follow him. He wanted the same thing that Mobius did. 

“And how would I be able to help you?”

“Stefano was given a task, one that should not have been as difficult as he made it. He was tasked to give me the power of the Core and he, instead, took it for himself, for his own greed and weakness. You saw what he became, how he allowed that power to corrupt him, and you have seen the outcome of his disobedience.”

Sebastian took a step closer to Stefano, dropping the disinfecting wipe to instead run his hand through Stefano’s hair. Stefano immediately reached out, releasing Sebastian’s shoulder, to grab his shirt and pull him closer, to bury his face into Sebastian’s naval. He was panicking, hyperventilating as he sobbed, the sounds coming from him a high pitched whine broken by hiccups. 

“I don’t take kindly to threats.” Sebastian kept petting Stefano’s hair, made sure that he knew where he was, physically and emotionally. “You’re not going to have her.”

“And I do not give empty threats,” Theodore countered. “You have a monster on your hands, one that will grow worse as you try to fix it. Take this as a warning. You will not be able to control him. I have given you an offer and, when you find that you cannot fight anymore, you may come to me. My door is open to friends and allies both. Then, we may talk again.”

The radio went quiet, the frequency lost. Sebastian looked down at Stefano who was still a quaking mess against him. Everything that he’d needed to know from Stefano was no, apparently, irrelevant. He knew that he needed to know and he was out of Theodore’s dungeon. Stefano had become, in one conversation, disposable. 

“What did he mean?” Sebastian asked, “About you getting worse?”

Stefano shook his head. “Don’t know. You have to believe me, I don’t know.”

“Okay,” Sebastian got down to his knees, wrapping his arms around Stefano’s frame and holding him close, letting him cry into his shoulders instead of his abdomen. “Okay, I believe you.”

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“We’re going to take care of this and then we’re going to leave this room. I have a friend nearby, I think, she can help us. I’m going to need more information on this Theodore guy.”

Stefano nodded. “You’re going to pick up where we left off?”

Sebastian nodded against him. Stefano’s breathing came in ragged gasps. “I’ll be as gentle as I can be.” Sebastian promised. 

“I know.”

Sebastian grabbed another wipe and lined himself up once more, this time letting Stefano cling to him wholly, like he was. He inhaled, a long deep breath, and then breathed it out in the same slow motion, keeping the air against Stefano’s face. After a few breaths like this Stefano caught on and was breathing with him, long inhales and shaky exhales. One the third one, he eased his way inside. 

Stefano immediately tensed and pulled away, but with how he was gripping Sebastian he couldn’t get far. His muscles contracted, trying to push him out and Sebastian wanted to be pushed out. Instead he kept pressing in, slow and steady, continuing to breathe, to lead, and he stroked Stefano’s back with his spare hand. 

“It burns.” Stefano shook between breaths. “Please, please go faster.”

“We’re almost there,” Sebastian promised, turning his hand to wipe up the gore inside of him. “You’re doing very well.”

“It’s hard,” Stefano gasped as Sebastian started to pull away. “to remember you’re helping.”

Sebastian was out of him then and he tossed the bloody tissue aside, not wanting to see what other fluids it was caked in. His hand was then back on Stefano’s back, rubbing circles into it, trying to help, to soothe. “I know. I know I must seem just as bad as what did this. It’s over now. I don’t know how else I can help.”

“Why are you still helping me?” 

Sebastian took a quick glace around the room, trying to find something else that could help them. Pants would be good, as Stefano was nude aside from Sebastian’s shirt still, but something that Stefano could use to help him walk would be better. Sebastian couldn’t keep going at the speed that he needed to if he had to carry Stefano all the time. 

“I don’t know but I’m not going to stop,” Sebastian nodded. 

There was a distance rumbling, some heavy footsteps hitting the floor far off. It was getting closer to them. Sebastian remembered the man with the safe head and his heavy footsteps, remembered how hard he’d been to fight. Now Sebastian was older and he had someone weak and defenseless with him. He wouldn’t be able to do much against him now. 

“Something’s coming,” Sebastian explained.

“I can feel it,” Stefano agreed, one of his feet on the ground to feel the tremors as they came, “One of Father’s Harbingers.”

“What?” 

Stefano gestured at himself, primarily at the damage on his body. “I believe he knows where we are.”

A burst of flame shot down a hall outside the room. They weren’t safe in the safe room, not if there was a barricade. They were going to have to fight back. Sebastian would consider hiding, but that didn’t matter much when the room was so barren and it knew where to find them. 

“We’ll be okay,” Sebastian brought a hand to Stefano’s cheek once more. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I’m very useless, aren’t I?” 

Sebastian scoffed, “Yeah, for the moment. You try to rest though, I’m sure you’ll be of use soon enough.”

It came into view, rushing towards the door. It threw itself against it, yelling out some command. The door opened slightly, the barricade shifting, the infrastructure weakened by Sebastian’s interactions. He drew his gun, aiming at it. There wasn’t a second thud but there was fire, bubbling the paint on the inside of the door, before it caught and the flames were spreading. It would only be a few moments now. 

The door of the house was burning, the doorknob too hot to touch. He watched how the flames at everything around it, as he broke through in another way. The barricade went up like kindling, like stuffed animals and drawings. He covered his nose, trying to breathe through the heavy smoke. Lily was upstairs. He had to get her. 

The door blew open and he could get through but it wasn’t Lily in the door way but that over sized priest thing, the harbinger, with his flame thrower. Sebastian tried to be present, to ignore the hammering of his heart. He could kill this thing. He had to. 

The world went blue and he couldn’t move, time frozen.


End file.
